BIRMINGHAM, Alabama --- Voters chose Leeds businessman Dickie Drake over Irondale Mayor Tommy Joe Alexander tonight to be the Republican nominee in the Nov. 29 general election for the Alabama House District 45 seat.

Drake is vying to fill the seat left vacant by his brother, the late Rep. Owen Drake, R-Leeds, who died July 27 of cancer after serving months into his second term of office as the district's representative.

Drake, co-owner and operator of Drake Lawn Maintenance, will face the lone Democrat, Paige Parnell, a Leeds businesswoman, in the November election. The winner's term will end in 2014.

"It's just hard to believe," Drake said tonight from a campaign celebration at The Livery Event Center in Leeds. He said it was an honor to have voters elect him to be the Republican nominee. "I'm extremely appreciative of their votes and the support they've shown me.

"It's crucial to return a true fiscal conservative to the seat previously held by my late brother, Owen Drake," he said in a GOP release. "The election is about keeping and expanding our job base and getting our economy back on track, something that can only be done through less spending, lower taxes, and decreased regulation."

He credited the victory to hard campaigning, which included knocking on doors in district neighborhoods.

Alexander said despite the election outcome, he and the people in his campaign also worked hard with efforts such as walking neighborhoods in the district and getting notices out to voters in the mail.

"We just couldn't get the people out to vote," he said tonight while watching election results with supporters at Huck's Rib Shack in Leeds. "Everything we could do, we did."

Alexander attributed the low voter participation to the rainy weather and the fact that the election is a special election.

"People are just not interested in it," he said.

House District 45 consists of most of Leeds; parts of Irondale, Center Point, Liberty Highlands, Crestline, Roebuck-South East Lake, Huffman and East Pinson Valley in Birmingham, Mountain Brook and unincorporated eastern Jefferson County; and small parts of Moody, Trussville, Grayson Valley and unincorporated western St. Clair County.